A Crack in Jets' Game Plan

ENLARGE

Tim Tebow, nursing two fractured ribs, never took the field in the Jets' 49-19 loss to the Patriots.
Reuters

By

Mike Sielski

Nov. 23, 2012 7:50 p.m. ET

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—With less than six minutes left before halftime of a game that Jets coach
Rex Ryan
would call "a nightmare," a chant went up from the few fans who hadn't yet made for the nearest
MetLife
Stadium exit. The chant was a single repeated word—"Tebow"—and it began again later in the Jets' 49-19 loss to the Patriots, too. But
Tim Tebow
never took the field Thursday night, not on offense, not on special teams, not once.

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What those fans didn't know, and what Ryan himself didn't know until Tuesday, was that Tebow had fractured two ribs in the Jets' 28-7 loss in Seattle on Nov. 11. Though Tebow had been listed on the team's injury report as "questionable" for Thursday's game with a rib problem, he and Ryan didn't publicly reveal the full nature of the injury until after the game had ended, raising questions about whether the Jets had left themselves shorthanded in the most important game of their season.

While keeping Tebow on their active roster against the Patriots, the Jets de-activated their third-string quarterback, Greg McElroy.

Had starter Mark Sanchez left the game for any reason—and it looked like he might when he collided with teammate Brandon Moore in the second quarter—the only available replacement would have been Tebow, who had two broken ribs and has not run an offensive play as a conventional quarterback in the Jets' offense. (He has functioned instead as the team's "Wildcat" quarterback.")

Ryan said in a conference call Friday that he had considered activating McElroy for the game. But Tebow had practiced every day after the Seattle game, and because the Jets' medical officials had cleared him to play and he had told Ryan he wanted to play, Ryan elected to keep him on the active roster.

"If they thought he could be in serious jeopardy to himself and all that, then he never would have been activated. He never would have been cleared to play," Ryan said. "Mighty men play this game. And there are guys who play where some people wouldn't even think about stepping on the field. In this case…he could have played in that game. He absolutely 100% could have played in that game."

Curiously, though, Ryan also said that he did not plan on playing Tebow against the Patriots unless he "absolutely had to," going so far as to tell offensive coordinator Tony Sparano and special-teams coach Mike Westhoff not to use Tebow without grave cause.

Even Tebow himself told reporters early Friday morning that the broken ribs had been hampering his breathing and that he wanted to suit up "to be there for my teammates in case they needed me in an emergency situation."

In a sense, the Jets have kept Tebow encased in glass all season. He has participated in a mere 68 offensive plays for them, and his lack of playing time accounts for why the true severity of his injury went unnoticed for 10 days. He played 10 snaps against the Seahawks and, according to a timeline of events provided by the Jets, told the team's trainers after the game that his ribs were sore. X-rays of the ribs were negative, and he continued to practice daily.

But he was on the field for just three snaps against the St. Louis Rams on Nov. 18, and by Tuesday morning the soreness in his ribs had intensified. An MRI and a CAT scan that night revealed the fractures.

Tebow, who according to the Jets declined to receive a pain-killing injection Thursday, was unsure whether he had worsened the injury by practicing for a week following the Seattle game, and he didn't know whether he would miss subsequent games. The Jets don't play again until Dec. 2, when they host the Arizona Cardinals.

"I hope not," Tebow said. "I was ready to go [Thursday] if they needed me. Obviously, it was not ideal."

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